Brand trust is a fundamental measure of success for your business. The more trust and confidence buyers have in your brand, the higher your sales and customer loyalty will be. 76% of consumers trust small businesses more than they do large ones, with excellent customer service helping improve that feeling of confidence.
You can improve brand trust by delivering on your promises, charging fair prices for your product or service, and treating your customers well – and by getting good online reviews from your customers on sites like Sitejabber. Read on to learn more about why brand trust is so important and how you can help buyers trust you.
What Is Brand Trust?
Brand trust describes how much trust and confidence buyers feel about your business. It’s about the relationship between your brand and your customers. Factors that make up brand trust include things like your reputation, your product or service, and your communication.
Brand trust is about more than just your product – it’s about the overall customer experience. To make a purchase from you, people not only need to feel confident that your product will do what it’s advertised to do. They also need to feel assured of your customer service, communication, shipping, and more.
65% of consumers have changed brand loyalties because the customer experience they received didn’t match up with what they had been promised. And for younger demographics, this customer churn is even higher.
What Affects Brand Trust
Factors that affect brand trust include:
- The quality of your products and services
- The quality and speed of your customer service
- Whether the customer experience is consistent
- Customer satisfaction
- Your online customer reviews, whether good or bad
- How your treat your employees
- How secure your customers’ data is
- Cost-quality ratio (value for money)
- Your political and philanthropic standpoints (including social responsibility and how involved you are)
- Competence
Virtually every aspect of your brand and how you conduct business plays into whether consumers will trust you. For each of the factors listed above, you have “trust signals” – online evidence that shows whether or not people should trust your brand. For example, a product award might serve as a trust signal for product quality, while your responses to reviews signal trust in your customer service.
Benefits of Building Your Brand Trust
By improving your brand trust, you can earn more revenue because customers are more likely to buy (especially for expensive or big-ticket items). 81% of consumers worldwide say they need to be able to trust the brand they buy from. Meanwhile, nearly half of consumers say they would pay more to purchase from a brand they can trust.
Take a look at a few of the biggest benefits you’ll see by building your brand trust.
Business Growth
Brand trust helps you grow your business – gaining more visibility (the good kind) and more customers, which leads to more sales and revenue. The statistics shared above prove it: If people trust your brand, they’re more likely to buy from you – and, they’re more likely to spend more. It’s a simple equation that brand trust equals growth. Later in this article, we’ll highlight how to use tactics like reviews and testimonials to impact buying decisions, drawing more people back to your brand.
Customer Loyalty
Another benefit of brand trust is customer loyalty. Trust naturally leads to loyalty, with customers that believe in your brand coming back again and again. And this is a good thing for you: Loyal customers pay more by an average of 33% per order. Retaining your current customers is also much more cost-effective than finding new ones, which is 5x more expensive. In fact, utilizing your loyal customers is one of the easiest ways to get new ones – which is what we’ll talk about next.
Loyal Customers = New Customers
Growing your brand trust creates a ripple effect. You gain a new customer. They become a loyal customer. And when they share their positive experience, this leads to another new customer. This is the kind of cycle you want to create.
Trusted by 92% of people, word-of-mouth marketing is highly relevant and effective. Brand advocates work well because 76% of individuals are more likely to trust content shared by “normal” people rather than content shared by brands. Create natural brand advocates by fostering trust using methods like the ones we’ll discuss below.
How to Build Brand Trust
Make A Good First Impression
The best time to start building brand trust is at the very beginning – the first time a customer interacts with your brand. 48% of people say the first interaction or purchase is the best time to earn their loyalty. What’s more, it only takes 0.05 seconds for someone to create an opinion about your website and your brand. So your online persona (whether that’s your website, social media, online reviews, or anywhere else you show up online) should be squeaky clean, showing nothing but a glowing reputation to anyone who stumbles across your brand.
Protect Your Customers
It’s not as exciting as creating cute, on-brand social media graphics – but data privacy and security is an integral part of brand trust. 63% of North Americans want to purchase from organizations that protect their privacy. But 61% don’t feel confident that brands keep the customer’s best interests at heart when using, storing, or sharing their personal data.
Cement brand trust and get more purchases by keeping customer data safe. Follow any relevant regulations such as the GDPR and U.S. data privacy laws. Collect the minimum amount of data you need, and be upfront about what you’re going to do with it. Sensitive data should be encrypted and have limited access to keep it safe.
Be Consistent
It’s not enough to provide a good customer experience one time. To truly build brand trust, you need to do it over and over again. If you don’t follow through, your reputation will take a hit, which harms your bottom line. More than half of consumers cut their spending after having a bad experience.
Improve consistency and trust by putting out content that aligns with your brand values. If your brand emphasizes humor and play, consistently be funny. Similarly, a brand that wants to be known for its craftsmanship can’t afford to slip up and put out a product with shoddy workmanship. Consistency with your products and experience is key so your customers know they can trust you both now and beyond.
Get More Online Reviews
Online reviews and testimonials play a major part in earning brand trust. 78% of people trust online reviews as much as they trust a recommendation from someone they know personally.
Ask recent customers to write a review about the product or service and experience. You can display their reviews on your own website or put them on popular third-party sites like Sitejabber. Getting new reviews on a regular basis is important, too: 85% of consumers believe online reviews older than three months are irrelevant.
Finally, you should also respond to reviews. A bad review can decrease your brand trust. Responding appropriately to the review and seeking to resolve the issue puts your reputation back in the clear by showing customers that you care about their experience with your brand. (You can reply to positive reviews, too, to show your appreciation and add a personalized touch.)
Build Brand Trust With Online Reviews
Brand trust is the lifeblood of your business. It creates loyal, lifelong customers that will stay faithful to purchase from you long-term. And improving your customer review strategy is one of the smartest ways to help your brand trust increase.
Ready to get started with online reviews? Make the process easier by creating a Sitejabber business account to get more reviews and more loyal customers.
